Secrets
by BanditJKilljoy
Summary: Ichigo has a dangerous secret and Ryou finds out. He loves her but doesnt know how to tell her especially since he thinks shes still with Masaya. Slight KeichiroXIchigo but itll be a RyouXIchigo thing!
1. A secret

OK THIS IS MY FIRST MEW MEW FANFIC OK SO BE NICE... ^-^ WELL I HOPE YOU GUYS ENJOY THIS AND ILL UPDATE REALLY SOON!!!

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Ichigo swept the entire cafe and began closing up for the night when Keichiro came into the room muttering something about the news. Ichigo's curiosity got the best of her, "Keichiro?"

He snapped out of his small conversation with no one and turned his attention to the cat girl standing before him. "Yes Ichigo?"

"Um what were you talking about?"

"Oh, that. It was nothing. I was just wondering about the news."

"The news? Why?"

"There have been some robberies in town. Thing is, they only steal gems and weapons and people say the person has a tail."

Ichigo's face turned pale. "oh, well I'm sure they'll catch whoever it is soon."

Keichiro noticed her face and came close to her. "Ichigo?"

She looked at the floor and held the broom so tight she could feel her hands turn cold. He looked at her and thought maybe something was wrong with her so he decided to ask. "Is there anything wrong?"

Ichigo could feel her body become weak for some reason. She let go of the broom and began to fall but Keichiro caught her. He held her close and rested his head on hers. It almost looked like they were kissing. At that moment Ryou came down to see why it was so quiet when he saw what he thought was Keichiro kissing Ichigo. He was so shocked at what he saw he simply stood there until Keichiro looked up in Ryou's direction. Keichiro blushed and explained what happened. Ryou wasn't so sure but then again why would Keichiro lie to him? They placed Ichigo on Ryou's bed and left her to sleep. Ryou sat next to Ichigo still feeling jealous that Keichiro got to hold Ichigo so close to him.

Ichigo began to move in her sleep. She tossed and turned mumbling things every now and then. "leave me alone... no... someone help me Ryou!" she screamed as she woke up panting heavily. It took her awhile to realize where she was. When she saw Ryou she blushed and hoped he hadn't heard her when she slept.

"are you alright strawberry head?"

Ichigo still felt dizzy and weak but she managed to nod. Ryou didn't seem convinced. "Sounded like you were having a nightmare. Mind explaining why my name was screamed?"

Ichigo blushed again. "What time is it? she looked around for a clock and when she found one "Oh no! I m so late!!!" she jumped out of the bed but didn t even get to the door before she fainted again. She woke up an hour later in Ryou's bed again only this time Ryou had fallen asleep next to her. He had his arms around her and she was pressed against his chest. She was so comfortable but the fact that it was Ryou made her a bit uncomfortable. Feeling his warmth she squirmed a bit before falling asleep again.

Ryou woke up another few hours later and realized that he had fallen asleep holding Ichigo. She seemed so comfortable. He kept hearing this small sound coming from her and as he leaned his face closer he realized that Ichigo was purring. He chuckled lightly trying not to wake her. He watched her for a few minutes and she was talking in her sleep again. "Ryou... I I lo- Ryou then heard the knock on the door." He cursed whoever it was for not letting him hear the rest of what Ichigo was saying. Getting up slowly he opened the door and saw a boy standing there. "Uh can I help you?"

"Is Ichigo here?"

"who are you?"

"I am a friend of hers. She was supposed to come home at 10:00Pm but it is now 7:00Am. I visited all of her friends houses and couldn't find her."

"Hold on I ll wake her up."

"She slept with you?" he seemed a bit hurt but shook it off.

Ryou walked over to Ichigo and shook her shoulders. She groaned as she woke up. Ryou helped her up. "Your friend is here for you."

Ichigo blinked a few times then smiled. She met her friend in the hallway and she hugged him. "I'm so happy to see you! I thought since I was late he might have-" she trailed off with a saddened expression.

He held her tightly. "No, of course not."

"Sorry to break up the moment but mind explaining who he is?" Ryou asked annoyed.

"Oh, sorry! Ryou this is Mario my good friend. Mario this is Ryou, my boss." Ichigo smiled at them.

Ryou arched an eyebrow when she said good friend. "Right well, I guess you can take the day off since your still sick."

Ichigo was surprised that he would do that. Or ever care that she was sick. "Thank you Ryou! I didn t think you cared"

"I don't. You just wont be of any use here since your sick. You d probably scare people off and break more plates than usual." He smirked.

"Ryou your such a jerk!" She stormed off.

"Uh.. Nice meeting you!" Mario waved at Ryou as he tried to follow Ichigo.

Ichigo sighed and waited for Mario to take her home. She was just so tired. When he finally caught up to her he handed her a helmet and put on his own. Ichigo sat in the back of the motorcycle and hugged his waist. Ryou watched them from his bedroom window and felt another shot of jealousy hit him. He watched them speed off in the opposite direction of Ichigo's house. Wondering where they were going he decided to take a shower.

The day went by slowly for Ryou without anyone to yell at. He decided to visit Ichigo and see how she was doing. On the way there he bought some flowers for her as a get well present. Once there though he was surprised to see that Ichigo's house had been sold. He was surprised that he had never noticed. Since he didn't know where she lived he decided to head to the park where he heard someone crying. Curious he went to look as to who was crying. It was Ichigo. She was on the floor bleeding from her shoulder and face. She looked really beat up. Ryou picked her up but she hissed at him and took off running. Trying to catch up to her he took a shortcut but she had disappeared.

The next day when Ichigo showed up for work instead of being yelled at for being late Ryou called her up to his room. She knocked before going in which surprised Ryou. "Since when do you knock?"

Ichigo did her best not to look into his eyes. She just looked at the floor or her shoes. Ryou was really worried now but he refused to show it. "So are you going to tell me what s wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Don't give me that. You've been acting weird and yesterday fainting and then I find you in the park where you were bleeding. So don t tell me its nothing."

"Nothing's wrong."

"Ichigo" Ryou moved closer to her and pressed hand on her forehead. "Well your not sick anymore."

"I told you it was nothing."

Ryou pressed his body against hers making her hit the wall with her back. He was so close to her face. Slowly he began to lower her uniform from her left shoulder causing Ichigo to blush the deepest red she had ever blushed. "Ryou what are you please don't" He rubbed her cheek with his right hand and brushed off the makeup she had used to cover up the cuts.

"Ichigo don't tell me its nothing I care about you Ichigo... I" he lowered his head so his lips were almost touching hers. Hesitantly he wrapped his arms around her as he began to kiss her. At first she struggled and refused causing Ryou to groan. But then she gave into his kiss and wrapped her arms around his neck. Ryou was surprised but he enjoyed the kiss. When they broke off the kiss both of them were blushing and surprised. "I shouldn t have done that." Ichigo began to walk away but was stopped by Ryou. "Why? Your precious Masaya wouldn't approve?"

Ichigo started to tear up so she ran out of his room and went straight to work. Since that happened Ryou had not come out of his room and Ichigo was secretly wishing he would come down and hug her again. She worked the entire day, she managed to get by Lettuce's questions with false cheerfulness. Mint was as usual drinking her tea. And Pudding was performing for the customers. Zakuro was hardly ever there so it didn t really matter to Ichigo. As soon as everyone was gone Ichigo sat down to take a break and began to think about that morning again.


	2. Her Second Job

SECOND CHAPTER IS UP YAY! I COULDN'T HELP MYSELF. I JUST HOPE PPL READ IT AND LIKE IT ^-^

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Ichigo finished up cleaning and closing up the cafe. It was already 9:00PM when she heard her phone ringing. "Ichigo here"

The voice sounded harsh and cold as he spoke. "I have a job for you"

"Now? But I m not done at the cafe"

"I am going to give you 15 minutes to get down here now."

"But I-"

"NOW!" she held the phone away from her ear yet she could still hear him.

"Yes sir." she sighed. She hung up and looked at the floor for a few seconds. Then she ran to the lockers and changed really fast. Her hair was now long enough for her to put up in one ponytail so she put her hair up instead of doing her usual pigtails. She grabbed her backpack and crammed her things inside. A quick glance at her watch made her eyes go wide as she tried to put on her shoes while trying to run at the same time. Practically falling out the door she managed to yell "I'm leaving Ryou see you tomorrow!"

Ryou had watched her the entire time and wondered why a phone call would be so urgent. He decided to go out for a quick walk to the park. Ichigo ran as fast as she could to her house and changed from her street clothes into something a little darker. Leaving food on the table she took out her cell phone as she left the house and left a voice message "Hey Mario, foods on the table for you. I've got a job and I don t know how long-" she ran down the street and jumped over one of the passing cars to the other side using her cat abilities "- its going to take to complete it this time so don t wait up ok? Bye." She hung up as she made it to the back part of the park.

"Your late."

She glanced down at her watch. He was right. She was 2 minutes late. "I'm sorry." She bowed her head onto her knee as she kneeled to him.

He looked at her with hatred along with lust mixed eyes. "You will steal the sapphire crystal from here." He threw a packet to her and she picked it up.

"But this is-"

"I want it here at midnight, no excuses. Its very protected so don t screw up. Got it?"

"yes sir" she walked off towards her destination when she felt his boot dig into her back knocking her head first into the fountain. "That was for being late. Next time I will not tolerate it."

She sneezed in response and he left. She sat up in the fountain shivering as she got out. Realizing she was bleeding from her right side of her forehead she growled and sneezed again and dried herself off by running to her destination._ 'Damn him. Damn him and his stupid jobs!'_ she thought as she ran faster.

Ryou saw a figure running towards one of the old Tokyo Museums. It was old but highly protected. All of the best technology was guarding the beautiful gems inside. He decided to follow the figure and saw it was a girl. He couldn't make out what she was wearing but he could tell she had her hair pulled back into a ponytail. He wondered who she was. He wondered what she was doing as she looked through the glass. She then suddenly grew claws on her fingers and deactivated the alarms as if they were nothing. She put her nails to one of the windows and cut a perfect circle through it, then she stuck her hand inside and opened the door. Once inside he saw her make her way to the sapphire jewel and open its case. She picked it up and seemed to marvel at its beauty before glancing down at her watch._ 'Crap its already 11:00Pm!'_ she ran out of the building, closing the door and reactivating the alarms. She put the piece of glass back into the window and mended it in place with a small laser. It seemed as if no one had ever entered the museum. She sat back and admired her work before turning to face the cold air. Through the moon light Ryou was able to see she had a black tail and black cat ears. She wore tight black pants that were tucked into combat boots that looked like they had seen many battles. Her shirt was long sleeved and went up to cover her neck. It was so skin tight on her you could tell she had a good figure. Her face was covered with a black mask yet you could still see her eyes. A ponytail sticking out from a hole in the back of the mask was also visible. Her hair was black with red streaks from what he could tell. She then took off in the direction of the park. Ryou followed her and hid behind a tree when he heard a man arrive.

"So did you get it?"

"Have I ever failed you?"

"So where is it?"

She tossed him a bag. He opened it and pulled out the jewel. "Beautiful, almost as beautiful as you my dear."

She simply stared at him with her blood red cat eyes. "May I leave now? I have work tomorrow."

"Indeed you do. Report back here tomorrow night at 9:30PM for training. It is time that I personally witness your skills." He walked away.

She was surprised he hadn't hit her or anything until he came back and kicked her in the stomach. "And that was for not showing up yesterday. Your lucky I like you as much as I do or else it would have meant another one of your friends lives."

She felt her side had split open due to a knife he had put at the tip of his boot. "I did as you asked. Leave me alone!" she regretted saying that for the rest of the night. He beat her and abused her until his thirst for blood was satisfied. It was around 5:00AM when he stopped and left her there. Ryou had just looked on. He had watched her get beat for hours.

Once she regained consciousness she got up and walked away muttering curses under her breath. Ryou followed her until she got to a house. It had three floors and a very beautiful front lawn. When he jumped on the fence he could see a pool in the backyard. He climbed up to a tree and peeked through one of the windows. There he saw her be greeted by a boy. He seemed to be around 15 years old. She took off her shirt causing both the boy and Ryou to turn red. Ryou could see all of the fresh bruises and cuts on her body. The boy had all the bandages and ointments out already so he began to tend to her wounds. He felt bad for her, when she was about to take off her mask Ryou felt the tree branch snap and he fell to the ground below. He heard someone open the door and he ran towards the cafe hoping they hadn't seen him.

Mario shrugged his shoulders and went back inside. "Does it sting yet?"

"No, not yet." Ichigo replied as she took off her pants, boot and mask.

"I still cant believe that he beat you up this badly again I swear Ichigo, one day he is going to go too far and you might die." He looked at her worriedly while applying more medicine onto her legs.

"Relax will you? Its not like I'm going to let him kill me."

"Doesn't look that way to me."

"Ow, its starting to sting." She closed her eyes as he finished bandaging her. By the time he finished she looked like a mummy which caused him to laugh at her.

"What's so funny?" she looked at him questioningly.

"Nothing." He chuckled and went up to his room for the night.

She followed him up the stairs. She looked at her clock and it was already 5:45Am so she grabbed her street clothes and headed towards the shower since the bandages were already bloody. After her shower she bandaged herself again and swung her backpack over her shoulder. Even that seemed to weigh a ton. Her steps were slow and she practically fell asleep on the way to the cafe.


	3. A discovery

**Ok so here's the third chapter. I hope you enjoy and thank you for the review Dbzgtfan2004. I appreciate it a lot ^-^ well onto the chapter!!!**

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She got there around 6:45Am and was yelled at by Ryou for being late again. Normally she would yell and argue with him but she ignored him and passed by right to the lockers causing everyone to stare in confusion. Once changed and her work day began she had regretted coming in for work. Lettuce asked her to take out the trash and while she did she fell asleep next to the trashcans. Ryou found her and got angry at her slacking off so he grabbed her wrist and pulled her up causing her to yell in pain. He let her go dropping her on her knees and she looked like she wanted to cry. He attempted to apologize but she simply stood up and glared at him before going inside. He felt disgusted with himself for treating her that way. Then he wondered why she had yelled in pain. He made a point to ask her later on when she was closing up.

Ichigo went back inside and did as she was told by Ryou and the other girls. She seemed so tired to them. Since business was a little slow she decided to go find Keichiro to ask him if she could leave early but ended up falling asleep on Ryou's bed. No one seemed to notice Ichigo was gone until they were leaving. Ryou volunteered to look for her and ended up giving up and heading to his room where he found her fast asleep. She looked so peaceful. He let her sleep until 10Pm. When she woke up with Ryou next to her she screamed and fell off of the bed causing some of her wounds to open up. The blood began to seep through the uniform and she ran out of his room leaving him with a confused look. She changed and was almost out the door when Ryou stopped her.

He moved her hands and watched the blood on her stomach and sides. "why are you bleeding? Is that the reason you yelled in pain earlier today?"

Ichigo ignored him and tried to leave but he blocked her way. Her phone rang causing them both to jump.

"Ichigo here"

"I told you to meet me here half an hour ago. Where are you?"

"I'll be there soon. Don't worry it won't happen again."

Ichigo tried to move again but Ryou wouldn't let her leave until he got his answers. "I am bleeding because I fell from the top of my stairs and I landed on glass ok? And yes it is why I yelled in pain. Now leave me alone I have to go."

Ryou didn't seem convinced but he let her go with the intentions of following her. She got to a house that Ryou recognized as the house he was at last night and this morning. His curiosity began to spark more. She went inside and soon came out with boy. He hugged her and kissed her on the cheek causing her to blush. She wore all black like the girl from last night and her hair was now a fresh blood red with black streaks. She put her hair up in a ponytail before she left and headed towards the park. Ryou was surprised at how much older she seemed. Her face was completely serious when she got to the park. Ryou hid behind one of the trees like he had done last time. He managed to see Ichigo bowing and then getting a few blows to the head. He felt like just jumping out and kicking the guys ass but he wanted to see why she would be running with such a tough crowd. Ichigo got up again and again after each blow. It looked as if she was in no pain at all but he knew that deep down she was fighting to scream. Once he was done with her he commanded her to fight back. She bowed and got into a fighting stance.

He looked her over before he attacked her. He tried to punch her but she dodged to the side and landed a powerful kick to the back of his neck driving his face into the floor. While she jumped away to safety he managed to grab one of her legs and swing her around slamming her into the tree that Ryou was hiding behind. Ryou climbed the tree so he could get a better look at the fight from above. The man aimed a punch to her face but she managed to duck and punch his stomach causing him to fly back a few feet. Ryou had to admit he was impressed. The man was angry now and charged at her tricking her into thinking he was going to kick her causing her to jump to the side but in reality he punched upwards hitting her jaw and making her fly upwards. She flipped in the air and landed on her feet. She wiped the blood from her lips with her tongue and made her fighting stance again. The man chuckled and charged at her again. This time he did manage to kick her face making her do a cartwheel and landing on her backside. She barely had time to get up when he brought his leg down into her stomach causing all of her wounds to bleed even more. She even spit out blood and was too shocked to move. He took advantage of this and picked her up. He licked the blood from her lips and then kissed her causing her to come out of her shock and kneeing his stomach making him fall to the floor. She then kicked him on his side and began to punch him repeatedly until her arms got tired. When she thought she had won she crawled under one of the trees and collapsed.

He soon got up and chuckled. "At least I know that you re a good fighter. But I fear I must leave now. There are some things that must be taken care of. By the way always keep your guard up." He kicked her stomach then picked her up and kissed her for a long time. After he was satisfied by roaming his hands everywhere on her body and licking her tears he dropped her and left her there to cry and bleed alone.

Ryou felt so much anger and hatred towards that man at the moment he just wanted to jump down and kill him. Once the man left Ryou jumped down and hugged Ichigo. She was so tired and disgusted but she still had her guard up and kicked Ryou's stomach causing him to stumble backwards. She stood up and made a fighting stance. Ryou also stood up and saw how serious she was. Her eyes were half closed since the man had hit her face a few times. He figured she couldn't see so he tried to talk to her. "Ichigo, its me. Its Ryou."

This seemed to calm her down. She stumbled a little bit and fell forwards into Ryou's arms. "Ryou" was the last thing she said before passing out. He carried her to her house and knocked on the door. Soon the same boy he had seen before had answered. He sighed and let Ryou in. He told Ryou where to place Ichigo and he began to undress her. This caused Ryou to blush and turn away.

Soon when Ichigo was taken care of Mario led Ryou to the living room. Ryou started to ask Mario so many things that Mario could hardly keep up in answering. Once Ryou was satisfied with the answers Mario went to go check up on Ichigo. He saw how badly she was bleeding and changed her bandages again. She felt so cold and looked almost dead. Mario watched her as she slept for a few minutes. Then he left her to sleep and returned with Ryou who was still in the living room eating some ramen that Mario had made.

"So how is she?" Ryou took another bite.

"She's fine. She just needs a good nights sleep that s all." He smiled.

"I cant believe I never noticed it before." Ryou frowned.

"Don't worry about it. Ichigo didn t want anyone to know about it. Its how we live. If she ever stops obeying him we end up on the streets again and another one of our friends ends up dead. Its his form of keeping her in check I guess."

"Its just not right. Is there anything I can do to help her?"

"no, but you can pretend that you don t know anything. She s worked too hard to have someone interfere."

Ryou sighed and looked at the empty bowl in front of him. Mario watched him for a minute before saying "I am going to tell her that I was the one who found her at the park. If you want I can say that you came by after her work and stayed the night. You can spend the night in the guest room. If you want I mean"

Ryou nodded and followed Mario to the guest room. "There are clothes in the closet if you need them. Brand new toothbrushes are in your private restroom and if you need anything don't hesitate to call me or one of the maids." Mario left Ryou alone in the guest room which was white and had a black bed along with black wooden frames and designs. The curtains were also black. Basically everything was black. Ryou laid on the bed and it felt as if he was laying on silk which he probably was. He had never thought that Ichigo would be rich and a top assassin/thief for some thug. He didn t know whether it was going to be strange seeing her at work as a normal teenager anymore, not that she ever was normal. He wondered if he would end up treating her differently. He soon fell asleep thinking of Ichigo.


	4. Asking

**Heres the next chapter, short I know but at least its there no? Next chapter I am going to try to double the length. ^-^ Thank you Ebony Dagger for the review on chapter 3. It made me realize my mistake so thanks a bunch! I will change that when I can xD and so heres the chappy!**

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Ichigo woke up feeling pain consume her body as she moved her head to look at the clock. She was used to the pain by now. It was typical for her. She groaned as she sat up and realized it was only 2:00AM. She figured Mario was still asleep so she quietly slipped out of bed. _'I wonder who brought me home last night. Did Mario bring me? I could have sworn I heard Ryou s voice and that he brought me home but maybe I was imagining it. I have been thinking about him a lot lately but I don t know why I even think about that jerk. He s always so mean to me and he never lets me get a raise! Oh, one day I swear I will get the better of him.'_

Ichigo smirked at the thought of one day Ryou actually being nice to her. She imagined his smile for once instead of his cocky smirk. _'Yes, his absolute gorgeous smile will definitely be better than his sexy cocky smirk!_' Suddenly her eyes were as wide as saucers. _'Did I just_' She shook her head then chose to forget about him for now. Once she was done undressing she examined herself in the mirror. _'So many cuts and bruises.'_ She frowned at how deep the cuts were. Once she cleaned them out and applied medicine she carefully bandaged herself. She had to pry her eyes open beforehand to keep them open and it was mega painful but she managed to wash them and she was able to see again although she did get stuck with two gigantic purple eyes which she covered with makeup.

Then without bothering to check what time it was, she walked to her room and changed into a blood red spaghetti strapped shirt that had a black cat on it. As for her pants she put on a pair of black tight shorts which had a red paw mark on her right backside. Ichigo looked at herself in her mirror and fixed her hair up into a ponytail. She noticed how long her hair was growing. She was getting tired of having to cut it every 3 days so she decided to just let it grow out. Her hair went to her waist even with a ponytail now. She looked around for her black bracelets which helped her in blocking but found instead her black gloves which were also good for blocking so she slipped those on. Once she got to her own personal dojo she warmed up with regular stretches then moved on to sit-ups and pushups. When she finally got her blood pumping she began the real exercises. Without hesitation she turned on her music and put it on loud then she began to practice with her Sai. She performed all of the most advanced katas. She was so focused on her form that she didn t notice her admirer standing at the back of the dojo. He watched her attack at her invisible opponent. She did spins and flips perfectly. Once she was finished with one particular kata she heard clapping so she turned around. She almost jumped when she saw Ryou standing there clapping. Her facial expression was turned from shock to happy to serious.

He wondered why she was so serious. "Your very good. Why don t you ever fight like that against the cynaclons?"

Ichigo glared at him before responding coldly. "what are you doing here?"

"Why so cold? Don t tell me that just because I m your boss I am not allowed to visit you every once in awhile." he leaned on the wall.

"Right let me guess, you couldn t stand that you wouldn t get to yell at me on the weekend so you came to yell at me in my own home." She turned her back on him and continued practicing only she was distracted by knowing he was still watching her.

"I can't stand any day where I wont see you. I miss you so much." Ryou stared at her with a bit of hurt in his eyes but shook it off. "No actually I was just wondering if you d like to go out for some coffee or something. I mean, you work a lot and I figured I should buy you coffee at least, that is if Masaya doesn t mind. Speaking of him, mind telling me why I haven t seen him around?"

Ichigo froze as he mentioned Masaya. She stared at the floor sadly but tried not to show it. "Masaya broke up with me for one of my best friends. I haven t seen him in weeks." Then she continued practicing, or at least tried to before Ryou spoke again.

"I'm sorry I didn t mean to bring him up. I have another question then. Do you have a boyfriend?" She was surprised that he d even want to know. Why do you care?

"Well, maybe I'd like to..." he couldn t finish his sentence.

She stared at him. "Are you saying that you d want to be my.."

He nodded. He could feel his face was hot and tried to hide it. "So what do you say?"

Ichigo didn't know what to say. She was surprised when she found herself wishing that she could say yes. But she didn t, instead she shook her head sadly and looked away. "Ryou I can't. I want to but right now I can't."

"Why? Why cant we be together? You like someone else?" Ryou felt jealousy hit him again. It hurt for him especially if she were to have said yes.

"No, I only like one person but right now I cant be with him because I have things to take care of first and I would never forgive myself if anything ever happened to him." She felt a tear on her cheek and wiped it away. She felt him wrap his arms around her and she wanted nothing more than for him to take her away for good but she pushed him aside and took off running to her room.

Ryou simply stood there and watched her run, away from him. He felt like running after her but decided against it. He decided to leave her alone for awhile. Once Mario woke up at 6:00AM he was surprised to see Ryou in the living room watching TV. Good morning he smiled.

"Morning"

"is something wrong?"

"no"

"are you sure?"

"yeah"

"well ok, what do you want for breakfast?"

"anything."

"how about pancakes and eggs with sausages on the side?"

"sure, sounds good."

"Ok, well I m gonna go call Ichigo down so she can help me." With that Mario left to get Ichigo and in a few minutes they both came down laughing and joking around. Once Ichigo saw that Ryou was still there she quieted down but still managed a smile. Ryou felt good since she smiled at him. At least he knew that she wasn't mad at him or anything. He figured that it would still be awkward hanging out at her house and around her.

"Ryou can I talk to you in private?"

Ryou nodded and him and Ichigo walked into one of the extra rooms. At first it was quiet between them, the she spoke. "I'm sorry Ryou"

He was a bit surprised that she would apologize. "For what?"

"For treating you like I did this morning then running off on you."

"Its alright. You don't have to apologize."

"I was also thinking about what you said"

This made Ryou turn red. "I um.. Uh" he looked at the floor.

"I don't think I'm ready just yet to have another boyfriend but maybe when I'm ready" she fidgeted with her thumbs.

Ryou nodded and was surprised when she kissed him lightly on the cheek before she left the room. Maybe there was a chance after all.


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